Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Most Americans favor voter ID laws, poll finds

Voter ID sign

A recent poll showed most Americans support requiring photo ID in order to vote.

Bill Clark/Getty Images

A majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation or race, agree that people should have to show photo identification when voting, recent polling found.

On this issue, state lawmakers are largely divided along party lines, with Republicans claiming voter ID laws help bolster election security and Democrats arguing the requirement is too restrictive. But a new survey, conducted by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist in late June, backs up other research showing there is actually broad public support for such measures.


Overall, the poll found that nearly eight in 10 Americans favor requiring government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot. This policy was most popular among Republicans (94 percent) and independents (83 percent), but a majority of Democrats (57 percent) also indicated support.

Voter ID laws were also found to be popular among both white people (78 percent) and people of color (81 percent).

Additionally, there was consensus that American democracy is in dire straits. Two-thirds of Americans said they felt democracy in the United States was "under threat," rather than "alive and well."

When asked what concerns them more, a majority chose "making sure that everyone who wants to vote can do so" (56 percent) rather than "making sure that no one votes who is not eligible" (41 percent).

But there was a stark difference in response when broken down by party. Democrats overwhelmingly said voter access was more important (85 percent), while Republicans focused on preventing ineligible votes (72 percent). Independents were almost evenly split on this question.

More than six in 10 people of color said voter access was more important, while only a slim majority of white people said the same.

The poll surveyed 1,115 adults across the country June 22-29. Interviews were conducted by phone and offered in both English and Spanish. The margin of error was 3.7 percentage points.

Read More

Is Bombing Iran Deja Vu All Over Again?

The B-2 "Spirit" Stealth Bomber flys over the 136th Rose Parade Presented By Honda on Jan. 1, 2025, in Pasadena, California. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images/TNS)

Jerod Harris/Getty Images/TNS)

Is Bombing Iran Deja Vu All Over Again?

After a short and successful war with Iraq, President George H.W. Bush claimed in 1991 that “the ghosts of Vietnam have been laid to rest beneath the sands of the Arabian desert.” Bush was referring to what was commonly called the “Vietnam syndrome.” The idea was that the Vietnam War had so scarred the American psyche that we forever lost confidence in American power.

The elder President Bush was partially right. The first Iraq war was certainly popular. And his successor, President Clinton, used American power — in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere — with the general approval of the media and the public.

Keep ReadingShow less
Conspiratorial Thinking Isn’t Growing–Its Consequences Are
a close up of a typewriter with the word conspiracy on it

Conspiratorial Thinking Isn’t Growing–Its Consequences Are

The Comet Ping Pong Pizzagate shooting, the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and a man’s livestreamed beheading of his father last year were all fueled by conspiracy theories. But while the headlines suggest that conspiratorial thinking is on the rise, this is not the case. Research points to no increase in conspiratorial thinking. Still, to a more dangerous reality: the conspiracies taking hold and being amplified by political ideologues are increasingly correlated with violence against particular groups. Fortunately, promising new research points to actions we can take to reduce conspiratorial thinking in communities across the US.

Some journalists claim that this is “a golden age of conspiracy theories,” and the public agrees. As of 2022, 59% of Americans think that people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories today than 25 years ago, and 73% of Americans think conspiracy theories are “out of control.” Most blame this perceived increase on the role of social media and the internet.

Keep ReadingShow less
We Can Save Our Earth: Environment Opportunities 2025
a group of windmills in the sky above the clouds

We Can Save Our Earth: Environment Opportunities 2025

On May 8th, 2025, the Network for Responsible Public Policy (NFRPP) convened a session to discuss the future of the transition to clean energy in the face of some stiff headwinds caused by the new US administration led by Donald Trump. The panel included Dale Bryk, Director of State and Regional Policy at the Harvard Environmental and Energy Law Program and a Senior Fellow at the Regional Plan Association, and Dan Sosland, President of the Acadia Center. The discussion was moderated by Richard Eidlin, National Policy Director for Business for America.

 
 


Keep ReadingShow less